The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is an American five-cent piece which was produced in extremely limited quantities without the authority of the United States Mint, making it one of the best-known and most coveted rarities in American numismatics. In 1972, one specimen of the five cent coin became the first coin to command a price of US$100,000; in 1996, another specimen became the first to break the million-US$ barrier. It is also rumored that if one were to be found in perfect condition, it could be worth over 20 million dollars. In 2003 one coin was sold for almost US$3 million. In 2010, the Olsen piece sold for US$ 3.7 million at a public auction. Only five examples are known to exist: two in museums and three in private collections.
Read more about 1913 Liberty Head Nickel: Origin, Pedigree, Eliasberg Specimen, Olsen Specimen, Norweb Specimen, Walton Specimen, McDermott Specimen, Books
Famous quotes containing the words liberty, head and/or nickel:
“Again we have here two distinctions that are no distinctions, but made to seem so by terms invented by I know not whom to cover ignorance, and blind the understanding of the reader: for it cannot be conceived that there is any liberty greater, than for a man to do what he will.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“In contrast to the flux and muddle of life, art is clarity and enduring presence. In the stream of life, few things are perceived clearly because few things stay put. Every mood or emotion is mixed or diluted by contrary and extraneous elements. The clarity of art—the precise evocation of mood in the novel, or of summer twilight in a painting—is like waking to a bright landscape after a long fitful slumber, or the fragrance of chicken soup after a week of head cold.”
—Yi-Fu Tuan (b. 1930)
“Castro couldn’t even go to the bathroom unless the Soviet Union put the nickel in the toilet.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)